Man convicted in 1997 Miss. rampage seeks release

JACKSON, Miss. – The man convicted of killing three and wounding seven others in a 1997 rampage in central Mississippi is asking for clemency.

In a legal ad running this month in the weekly Rankin County News, 30-year-old Luke Woodham says he'll ask Gov. Haley Barbour to let him out of prison.

Barbour's office says the governor hasn't received Woodham's request.

Fourteen years ago, Woodham, who was 16 at the time, stabbed and bludgeoned his mother to death and then went to Pearl High School and opened fire with a hunting rifle on students and teachers. When the rampage ended, two students were dead and seven other people were wounded.

District Attorney Michael Guest, who assisted in the prosecution of Woodham, said Wednesday that Woodham has no chance of being released.